There is a new cause for celebration in the world of HIV AIDS preventative studies; a break through study has come about and has proved to work. For the first time ever, a vaginal cream has proved to be able to block the AIDS virus from infecting women,the gel halves the woman’s chances.

The Study conducted right here in South Africa will go a long way into helping woman whose partners will not use condoms for various reasons.
The gel also halves the chances of getting HSV-2, a herpes virus that causes genital warts. As we well know, other sexually transmitted diseases raise the risk of catching HIV. The results of the study do need to tested in another study and researchers say that that level of protection is probably not enough to win approval of the microbicide gel in countries like the United States, researchers say. But they say it can be improved.

The executive director of the World Health Organization's UNAIDS program released a statement and said: "We are giving hope to women," who account for most new HIV infections.”

Dr. Salim Abdool Karim, the South African researcher who led the study, will present results today at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna.
Dr. Anthony Fauci of the U.S. National Institutes of Health said, "It's the first time we've ever seen any microbicide give a positive result" that scientists agree is true evidence of protection.

The gelspiked with the AIDS drug tenofovir, cut the risk of HIV infection by 50 percent after one year of use and 39 percent after 21/2 years, compared with a gel that contained no medicine.

To be licensed in the United States, a gel or cream to prevent HIV infection may need to be at least 80 percent effective, Fauci said.
He added that this is possible however, by getting women to use the product more consistently and adding more tenofovir to the gel. In the study, women used the gel only 60 percent of the time; those who used it more often had higher rates of protection.
If further study shows the gel to be safe and effective, WHO will work to speed access to it, said its director-general, Dr. Margaret Chan. The gel is not a commercial product as yet, it was made for this and another ongoing study from drugs donated by California-based Gilead Sciences Inc., which sells tenofovir in pill form as Viread.

The study tested the gel in 889 heterosexual women in and near Durban, South Africa. Researchers had no prior information on the women's partners, but the women were heterosexual and, in general, not in a high-risk group, such as prostitutes.

Half of the women were given the microbicide and the others, a dummy gel. Women were told to use it 12 hours before sex and as soon as possible within 12 hours afterward. At the end of the study, there were 38 HIV infections among the microbicide group compared to 60 in the others.

Researchers were pleased with the results stating that partial victory is a huge victory when it comes to this deadly disease. Different countries will have their own opinions about whether this gel should be licensed or not because it only offers 50% protection for now but in South Africa anything that can reduce the 1.3 million infections to be experienced over the next two decades is definitely worth licensing.

Surveys showed that many of the women found the gel easy to use and said their partners didn't mind it. Also 99% of the women said they would use the gel if they knew for sure that it prevented HIV.

The study was sponsored by the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa, or CAPRISA; Family Health International; CONRAD, an AIDS research effort based at Eastern Virginia Medical School; and the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.